Quantifying Child-Appeal: The Development and Mixed-Methods Validation of a Methodology for Evaluating Child-Appealing Marketing on Product Packaging

Christine Mulligan, Monique Potvin Kent, Laura Vergeer, Anthea K Christoforou, Mary R L'Abbé, Christine Mulligan, Monique Potvin Kent, Laura Vergeer, Anthea K Christoforou, Mary R L'Abbé

Abstract

There is no standardized or validated definition or measure of "child-appeal" used in food and beverage marketing policy or research, which can result in heterogeneous outcomes. Therefore, this pilot study aimed to develop and validate the child-appealing packaging (CAP) coding tool, which measures the presence, type, and power of child-appealing marketing on food packaging based on the marketing techniques displayed. Children (n = 15) participated in a mixed-methods validation study comprising a binary classification (child-appealing packaging? Yes/No) and ranking (order of preference/marketing power) activity using mock breakfast cereal packages (quantitative) and focus group discussions (qualitative). The percent agreement, Cohen's Kappa statistic, Spearman's Rank correlation, and cross-classification analyses tested the agreement between children's and the CAP tool's evaluation of packages' child-appeal and marketing power (criterion validity) and the content analysis tested the relevance of the CAP marketing techniques (content validity). There was an 80% agreement, and "moderate" pairwise agreement (κ [95% CI]: 0.54 [0.35, 0.73]) between children/CAP binary classifications and "strong" correlation (rs [95% CI]: 0.78 [0.63, 0.89]) between children/CAP rankings of packages, with 71.1% of packages ranked in the exact agreement. The marketing techniques included in the CAP tool corresponded to those children found pertinent. Pilot results suggest the criterion/content validity of the CAP tool for measuring child-appealing marketing on packaging in accordance with children's preferences.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04294121.

Keywords: child-appealing marketing; food marketing; food packaging; marketing power; marketing techniques; marketing to kids; mixed methods; product packaging; validation.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Spearman correlation (rs) between children’s ranking of cereal boxes in order of preference and the CAP tool’s ranking of cereal boxes according to the marketing power. The plotted line depicts the Spearman rank correlation and 95% CI between children’s ranking of cereals (i.e., 1 to 6) in order of preference and the CAP tool’s ranking of cereals (i.e., 1 to 6) in order of marketing power. Individual data points indicate the CAP-child ranking pairs (e.g., child cereal rank of “2”/CAP tool rank of “1”), with larger data points corresponding to a larger number of ranking pairs at that intersection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cross-classification analyses of the agreement between children’s and the CAP tool’s ranking of cereal boxes, overall, and per cereal box. Cross-classification analyses were conducted between the CAP tool and children’s rankings (i.e., 1 to 6) of breakfast cereals according to the marketing power (CAP tool) and their appeal (children). Cross-classification analyses were conducted overall and per individual cereal box. Exact agreement was defined as the same ranking by both the CAP tool and children (e.g., CAP tool scored the cereal box with the 2nd highest marketing power and children ranked as their 2nd favorite). Agreement ±1 ranking (e.g., CAP tool scored the cereal box with the 2nd highest marketing power and children ranked as either their 1st or 3rd favorite) and disagreement (i.e., rankings ±2) were also calculated. If rankings were further apart than ±2 ranks, it was considered to be gross misclassification. Cereal boxes are ranked in order of least (A) to most (F) powerful marketing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of coding references for each CAP tool marketing technique discussed by children during focus groups. Marketing techniques from the CAP tool were used as codes to analyze the transcripts from the focus group discussions with children. The number of times each marketing technique was mentioned by children was counted. A full description of the marketing techniques can be found in Appendix A.

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